July 11, 2008

Mocha-dot Chiller Brownies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Help! I need your naming skills! I made these brownies last night and I'm stumped for a name. The most creative name wins a Wilton Bite Sized Square Silicone Mold prize pack! This is the mold that I used create my cheesecake pops.
To enter, please leave a comment below, but try to think of names that
are really unique and catchy. The deadline is midnight PST July 17th.
The winner will be selected by me and announced on July 18th (it's now closed!). Before you take a stab at naming them, you'll probably want to see another picture and know what's in these bad boys, huh? :-)These appealed to just about everyone: both the chocolate fanatic and even those who wouldn't consider themselves to be a big chocolate fan, like me. The chocolate cream cheese frosting
was really wonderful. I plan on using it again!

Mocha-dot Chiller browniesYield: 15 good sized brownies, but as always, it's all in how you cut them.

Ganache
Chop the chocolate as evenly as you can and put it a heat-proof bowl. In a sauce pan, over medium-low heat slowly warm the whipped cream. Just when you start to see little tiny bubbles coming to the surface of the cream, turn off the heat and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then mix the cream and chocolate very slowly and gently. It will take a few minutes until the cream and chocolate combine into one satiny smooth puddle. Set it aside to cool on the counter (don't cover or chill it).

Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly mist the bottom of a 13 by 9inch pan with veggie spray.

Combine the brownie mix, melted butter, cream, and eggs into a big mixing bowl. Stir everything together with a heavy spoon until all the ingredients are well combined. Pour the batter into a prepared pan, smoothing out the surface with a rubber spatula. Scatter the chocolate chips evenly over the surface of the batter and place the pan into the oven. Bake the brownies 20 minutes and cool completely for at least 30 minutes.

Frosting
Using the whisk attachment, whisk the cream cheese for a minute on medium high until light and fluffy. Add 2 tablespoons of the chocolate ganache into cream cheese and mix on medium speed until well blended, being sure to scrape the bowl once or twice. Taste it and if you want a more dramatic chocolate flavor, add another two heaping tablespoons to the mixture and mix again. Add salt. Slowly mix in the confectioners sugar. If the mixture gets too thick, add a tablespoon or two of whipping cream and beat on high until the frosting becomes a more spreadable consistency.

Assembly
Run a knife along the perimeter of the pan and invert the brownies onto a cooling rack. Place a platter or cake board on top of the inverted brownies and flip it over again so the chocolate chips are facing up.

Spread a thick layer of frosting over the top of the brownies. Try to smooth the surface as best you can.

For the big dots in the center of the brownies, I used a pastry bag with a number 10 tip and a number 4 tip for the smaller dots. However, if you don't have a pastry bag or tips, but you could easily use a zipper bag to create the dots by cutting off the corner of the bag. Or, you could just spread a layer of ganache over the chocolate frosting. Seriously, it's chocolate ganache...you can't really make a mistake with it :-)

I highly recommend storing the finished product into the fridge overnight. These tasted good when I first frosted them but after sitting in the fridge for several hours, the chocolate flavor got a lot more pronounced. They went from "pretty good" to "spectacular" overnight.

i am in love with your blog! i just found it, and can't wait to try some of your recipes...the name i came up for your brownies is...."a girl's best brownie"...because it looks like it could cure that insatiable chocolate craving i have about 12 times a year!

that's a lot of chocolate and richness and i love it. i'd call them coma-inducing chocolate bars, and although that sounds like a bad thing, i'd gladly sink into a sugar coma for just one more bite! :)

Mocha Pixie Squares-- If you look up "brownie" on thesaurus.com, you'll see Pixie, Fairy and Elf all listed.... if you look up "brownie" on dictionary.com, the first listing is a little brown elf that helps with household chores (who wouldn't love a brownie like THAT??)!

I don't know what I would name your brownie but it made my Jaw Drop in Delight. I am looking for a brownie recipe to make this year for my anniversary and I think these are it! My husband request one with frosting and this could